Rep Power: 959

Just for ***** and giggles I stopped by work and tested my battery and my alt with the auto meter mobile tester. Battery was fine along with my diodes and voltage regulator. One thing did disturbed me though, it showed my alt was only putting out 45 amps. The alt in my car is rated at 140 so why is it showing so low on the tester? I know alts do not produce that much power when at idle but 45 out of 140 seems rather low don't you think?

 
Rep Power: 967

isnt 140 the max output, not the average output?

 
Rep Power: 0

Depends on what load you have going to the alt.. Hook up like 6 amps, turn the A/C on, and hit the headlight switch, then measure it again, I'm sure you'll see higher numbers

 
Rep Power: 1126

the thing also doesn't turn on until 1500 rpm 45 amps is enough to run everything needed at idle